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SUMMARY OF TOP 20 MOST PROFITABLE COMPANIES

America’s 20 most profitable companies in 2010 are a mix of surprises and what would have been unexpected results in 2008 and 2009. Notably missing with the exception of GE are light and heavy manufacturing companies. Surprising some observers are the results of the banking sector represented in the top 20 by J.P. Morgan-Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citi Bank, all of which had terribly rough years in 2008 and not much better in 2009.

Not too surprising is the presence on the top 20 list of oil and gas represented by Exxon who won the top spot and Chevron followed as number 3, and ConocoPhillips followed in the 16th spot.

Computer related companies made the list as expected with AT&T at number 2, Microsoft at 4, Apple at 8, Intel is 15, and Hewlett-Packard is 18.

Consumer purchases enabled Wal-Mart to land in the number 6 spot but it was a hard landing with the retail giant’s trend being lower sales and lower profits. Johnson and Johnson came in at number 9, Proctor & Gamble at 11, and soft drink giant Coca-Cola achieving number 13.

A lot of these companies were also voted as some of the best companies to work for.  Some of the company employee benefits programs. such as Google, include the standard health, dental and vision care but random perks including messages, basketball courts, free day care and a gym are what makes this company standout against others.

NOTEWORTHY COMMENTS ON NOTEWORTH COMPANIES

Banking

J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo and Citi Bank demonstrated remarkable resilience in their comeback from near collapse.

Consumer Oriented Companies

Wal-Mart has clearly been weakened by a recovery that doesn’t seem to be headed their way.

Johnson & Johnson came through a rough year but they will need to win back a lot of consumer confidence.

Proctor & Gamble growing concern over consumers who are leaving the P&G name products.

Coca-Cola is consumer driven and the consumers are apparently buying.

Computer Related Companies

All of these companies that are in the top 20 are not surprising, but it is interesting that consumers are spending for these products as much as they are. These profits raise the question about whether it is the high income segment that has the money or other people find the products so attractive that they find a way to buy them.

THE COMPANIES AND THEIR PROFITS-IN BILLIONS

1. Exxon $30.5
2. AT&T $19.8
3. Chevron $19.0
4. Microsoft $18.8
5. J.P. Morgan $17.4
6. Wal-Mart $16.4
7. IBM $14.8
8. Apple $14.0
9. Johnson & Johnson $13.3
10. Berkshire Hathaway $13.0
11. Proctor & Gamble $12.7
12. Wells Fargo $12.4
13. Coca-Cola $11.8
14. General Electric $11.6
15. Intel $11.5
16. ConocoPhillips $11.4
17. Citigroup $10.6
18. Hewlett-Packard $8.8
19. Google $8.8
20. Goldman Sachs $8

The top 20 is a list of surprises in the strength of consumer driven companies.

First of all it is important to define exactly what is considered a penny stock. A penny stock is not just stocks that sell for one or two cents a share but include a range of securities from one cent all the way up to five dollars a share. The reason for using securities instead of stocks here is because there are other financial products that fall into the five dollar and less category. And all penny securities can produce great wealth if the investor stays well informed and are some of the best stocks to buy.

In looking at penny stocks or securities, it is best to rely on professional feedback and any news articles that can be found regarding the company an investor is interested in. One example is “…DHT MARITIME INC., formerly Double Hull Tankers, Inc…” (Ticker symbol DHT NYSE) DHT’s ranking of “Hold” by Sabrient Investment Research and The Street. This may sound boring, but on 19 Oct 2011 DHT closed at $1.81 a share with an annual dividend of $0.40 per share, which is paid quarterly at $0.10 per share. This is the exciting part, divide the $0.40 into the share price, it’s a 22% return. Be careful though, because sometimes a good deal could go sour very quickly. This is why it is also important to keep track of the news involving the investment. Of course, in DHT’s case the only news feeds lately is their financial statement announcements, but the bad news is, if you visit their web site, they lowered dividends as their share price shrank. This is a warning sign that the company has poor financial backing and is cash poor, and since it is a shipping company it has been effected by the global economy. Another security that may be worth looking at is Chimera Investment Corporation (Ticker symbol CIM NYSE), a real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests in residential mortgage loans, residential mortgage-backed securities, and real estate-related securities. On 19 October 2011 the share price closed at $2.93 with an annual dividend of $0.52 for a return of 17.75%. REITs have become popular because federal law requires them to show they pay high rates of returns and they are vested in more than one security similar to a mutual fund. Also CIM is rated as “Hold” by Sabrient Investment Research and The Street and no negative press. But again the signs of danger exist in reduced dividends over time.

In conclusion, there is a lot of money to be made if you are willing to take the risk. But be sure to keep a close eye on the penny securities you choose because they can sell off and go bankrupt overnight.

Even during these volatile and unstable economic times there appears to be no lack of additional ways to make money. Gone are the days when securing a part-time job in order to supplement one’s main source of income was the only option available.

Whether working from home on one’s computer, baking cookies/cakes and selling them in the community, offering maid services Chicago,  or merely cutting grass on weekends, there is no shortage of ways to make extra cash. This brief overview may help those in their endeavors to bring home more revenue and get one, if not several ideas, to help meet whatever financial need they may face – quickly.

Best Ways To Generate Fast Income Online From Home

- If one has a gift for writing even simple posts to a forum or blog, then one can probably generate income by writing either short or long articles in the Internet. Payments are upfront and are quite regular in frequency; as are the myriad of topics and writing assignments.

Following are three outstanding web sites which specialize in providing writers, not necessarily experienced, a platform to exhibit their writing ability: Textbroker, Demand Studios, and Problogger Job Boards.

- In addition, filling out survey questionnaires also provide ways to generate income online; however, careful researching of these survey sites is a necessity.

Community Odd Jobs

- Making clothes or clothes alterations is always a quick manner to generate income; of course, a knowledge of sewing is vitally important. Any skill in making lawnmower repairs, auto tune-ups or oil changes is another fast manner to generate cash.

- If one owns an old auto/truck, then hauling away trash or construction debris is not problem — as is helping someone move short distances over the weekends.

- Other community odd jobs may include serving as a companion during either nights or days to the elderly, running errands for those not able to do so and of course, the perennial baby sitting jobs. Additionally, feeding and walking the family dog(s) maybe another form to earn quick cash.

The ways to earn extra income are virtually limitless. With a set of home-made business cards or fliers, or advertising one’s wares online, one is certain to be able to be generating cash within a few hours.

Will this cash solve one’s economic problems? Not necessarily, but it may help lessen the financial strain many are carrying during these increasing times of hardship.

Market research involves finding out what products or services people are looking for. For a marketer, researching the market he or she plans to promote is absolutely essential. In order for their efforts at selling to pay off, he or she must make sure that the people want what they are selling otherwise their efforts will be wasted by visitors leaving the website without buying anything. To make sales you must drive targeted traffic to your website, targeted meaning referring visitors who you know will buy.

Making sales is the marketer’s ultimate goal so he or she needs to investigate the market, find out what products in that industry people are buying and how often they are buying. You will want to know this before you pick a product to promote. They also need to know how many other marketers are making sales and promoting products as this will be the competition. Here are some steps outlining methods of performing market research.

1. Set up an online survey or poll on your blog to get an idea of what your target audience is looking for.

2. Go over to Google Trends and do a search for popular topics.

3. Post a thread in community and niche forums asking a question in your chosen topic and record all the answers on a spreadsheet.

4. Utilize Google Analytics on your website or blog to find out where your traffic is coming from and what search terms they are using to find you.

5. Perform a keyword search on Wordtracker and Google’s External Keyword Tool to see how many searches come up in this topic.

6. Use the Google Suggest Tool to find out how many other websites are competing for your chosen keywords.
When you look at the results, do your keywords have a lot of searches? These numbers will tell you if people are using these search terms to find products.

You can also use social networking sites to research the popularity of your topic. Check the forums on the site for current conversations or start a thread of your own. Facebook and Myspace sell advertising on their pages so if you see ads related to your topic then people are buying these products. Start a topic on Twitter by asking a related question and see how many responses you get back.

Success in marketing comes from knowing your audience and what they are looking for and these tips will help you accomplish that.

Any successful business owner knows that the business will make more money with a good promotional plan. Your customers are never going to buy your product unless they know where to find you. Good promotion will also convince your customers why they should spend money with you instead of your competition. There are many ways to promote and your promotion strategy should be whatever is going to maximize your sales potential.

Social Networking

Using social networking is a great way to promote your business. You can use a mix of services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other niche social sites to promote yourself. Social media is the easiest way to reach out to customers anyway in the world and expand your market base.

Radio And TV

Television and radio are two traditional mediums in which a company can advertise effectively. The key is to know what stations to advertise on. It means that you have to know and understand what market you are targeting. You wouldn’t want to put an ad for a new Lil Wayne CD on during Matlock, or for a sit down bath during Saturday morning cartoons.

Word Of Mouth

Get your product into as many markets as possible. A good way to develop word of mouth is to give out free samples outside the grocery store, or have a truck that goes around town handing out free samples. Not only will people hang around looking for your free samples, but people enjoying the samples will equal more sales for your products.

Give Away Free Service

If you are a service based business, you might want to give out a free consultation, or the first hour of tutoring can be free. This will get people to try your service knowing there is no risk other than time invested. If all goes well, you can then get even more word of mouth and more potential customers.

Your business should be promoting wherever there are going to be customers for you to reach. No one will buy from you if they don’t know you exist. Good promotion will allow people to see and try your product or service without feeling as if it was a waste of money.

Creating a blog for your business is a great step to take financially, and it can even positively further your image on a more personal level with your readers. With blogging, you can make a significant amount of income while engaging your readers and helping them become more involved with interests that you all share. Instead of continuing to wonder how you can take your business to the next level with a blog, go ahead and jump into one by using this advice!

Your first item of business should be to decide what your blog will center around. Because this blog will be a counterpart to your business, you’ll more than likely need to blog about your business or the niche that your business resides in. For example, if you run a business selling gardening products, you could update your blog with hints, tips, guides, and other helpful information geared towards gardening. The most important part of coming up with an idea for your blog is to make sure that it is relevant to your readers. Because this blog will cater to your business, this is imperative.

Next, you’re going to need to decide what you’ll do in terms of “hosting.” There are two general ways that people get their blogs up and running. The first, most common way to start a blog is to use free online services such as “Blogger.” These services will help you get your blog started easily without any sort of down payment or rate. The only downside is that the blog can never be truly considered “yours,” as it will always be hosted on the blogging company’s site. On the other hand, you can choose to get your own hosting where you will have a lot more control. You can get your own domain name this way as well.

If you decided to take the route where you will host your own blog, then you’ll need to take the next step and install WordPress. You can do this by downloading the necessary files from the WordPress site and uploading them to your web server once your hosting is set up. You’ll need to create a database which should be relatively easy considering most server control panels make it easy. Once WordPress is set up, you’ll be able to start blogging!

One of the best things about blogging is that it can really take your business to the next level by helping your reap more financially from your customer base, and it can even create a semi-personal connection with your readers. Give it a shot to see what it can do for your company!

With the global culture in existence nowadays, people are now communicating with each other over increasingly large distances, whether for business purposes or for personal ones. Originally, this communication was done by letter, which would take weeks and sometimes months to get from one place to another. As technology went advancing, the telephone became the primary tool of long-distance communication. Then came e-mail and instant messaging, which stay with us to this day. However, that only supplements the written word of the person that you are communicating with. What if you want to see this person face to face in real time? Well, you’re in luck. There are quite a few systems of telecommunication available.

As you may have noticed, many computers now come with a little thing called a webcam built into them. This small camera is usually located on the top edge of the screen portion of a laptop, and is made to capture both still shots and film sequences. This enables a person to broadcast their image in real time to another, as well as to take pictures with it. And even if you don’t have a built in webcam on your computer, take heart. It is virtually just as easy to use an external one. Plus, those can have higher resolution than the built-in ones.

Of course, to use a webcam, you need a program that will interact with it. Luckily, there are a myriad different programs and applications that will enable you to do so. For example, the extremely popular internet phone service Skype. Though originally designed a a phone and chat program, Skype now features an option that allows video calls to be made. What’s more, it allows conference video calls; that is, video calls that involve more than just two people. Also, most SMS services, such as Yahoo! Messenger, carry this service built in.

Even our gadgets now have this possibility. The recent batch of smartphones, both Android and iOS based, can involve video calling in real time. The iPhone was one of the first smartphones to incorporate this technology, and remains one of the best phones to do so. The iPad, though not actually a smartphone, has a similar feature. The receiving camera is placed by the screen, so you can actually look into it while you perform the video call.

These are just a few of the options available nowadays. And, as the times progress, you can expect to see more of these features popping up elsewhere.